We played Notes on Blindess VR, based on the book, Touching the Rock, about a man named John Hull, who after decades of declining vision became totally blind in the early 1980's. To help him make sense of this traumatic time in his life, John kept an audio diary documenting his journey into blindness. Alongside the engaging storytelling, Notes on Blindness VR incorporates movement tracking, spatialized sound, animation, and controller interactions.
Kim: Agreed. Completely unexpected.
Attention and Focus
Dan: The ability of VR to focus attention and block out the world, including most sight, enabled this experience of empathy. I can’t imagine it being done this well in another way. Although, I suspect the narrator would have created a pure soundscape without the visuals, thinking the visuals were irrelevant. I do think the visuals made the experience more accessible for sighted people, though they may have limited the impact of being completely without sight. It would be interesting to compare a visual and non-visual version of this experience to see the impact on viewers. I suspect a non-visual version would require more time to adjust to relying on just hearing.
Kim: The game has some interaction and uses visual cues and metaphors to strengthen the narrative experience. There is a paradox of making a VR experience about blindness visual, but it works. The visuals are not overpowering and they give points of reference to the story. As a person that has vision, it is much more compelling to experience this story with the use of visual cues, otherwise I would be sitting in the dark. John Hull had vision before, so his visual schemas are the same as mine.
Dan: I agree, the visuals, interaction, and narration all helped maintain focus, increasing immersion and presence. I like the slow pace of the narration, giving time to experience the surroundings and even have my own reflections. Because of the focus VR supported, that extra time went into deepening my reflections, whereas in another context it might have led to interruptions and distractions. The interactions, while not rushed or overbearing, did give me something to focus on and a sense of progress and a bit of structure. Like making the wind blow in different parts of a scene as a way to explore that scene. It’s not overdone.
The Power of Storytelling
Kim: I came into this experience with some background from Dan on what Notes on Blindness was about, but not much (Dan and I have an unspoken rule about not sharing too much about a game or VR experience before the other has had the opportunity to experience it themselves). I had also not heard of John Hull or his writings, documentary film, or audiotapes before, so in some ways I went into this blind (pun intended). After some research, I learned that John went blind in his forties from cataracts and retinal detachment. Although this VR experience is about 30 minutes long, there are over 16 hours of his audiotapes that describe his thoughts and experience of being blind.
Dan: I love how this experience inspired you to dig deeper into his story and background. I didn’t do that on my own, but was interested to learn what you uncovered.
Kim: As humans, we share our experiences in the form of narratives or stories, with a beginning, middle and end. Storytelling is a powerful medium, and is often at the core of meaning making. John’s story about coming to terms with being blind, and then seeing the hidden beauty behind his blindness is how he makes meaning of his tragedy. Sharing his story with others and helping others to understand blindness is a way to find meaning.
Dan: Yes, I love a good story. This is a hero’s journey of sorts, with John facing tough challenges and overcoming them in his own way. He’s an inspiring character. Storytelling is also a great way to bring coherence to unfamiliar ideas, so it helps make this walk in another’s shoes more accessible, emotional, and memorable.
Kim: Video games tend to have larger narratives happening in the background that the player isn’t aware of. Game creators may have back stories to characters or other smaller, less significant narratives (or side quests) happening outside of the larger story-line. Notes on Blindness has a larger narrative behind it that the player doesn’t know about. John Hull has written books and participated in a documentary also entitled “Notes on Blindness”. There is more to his story that we don’t know, which doesn’t dilute this VR experience, but did push me to learn more about his story outside of the game.
Example - we see some struggle of acceptance through his narrative about his experience of a snowy day - I learned more from his writings that this was about his panic-induced asthma attacks from the isolation he experienced from first going blind. Like many video game narratives and other digital experiences (including film), not knowing this information does not take away from the experience.
Dan: I love that example. It helped me reframe weather and how different kinds of people can experience it. It helped me see the subjectivity; it isn’t so much a peaceful day objectively as it is a peaceful day for me. John experienced it completely differently.
Kim: The only voice the player encounters in this experience is John, and we hear it as grainy audio cassette tapes recordings from over 40 years ago. Listening to John’s voice creates a powerful connection to the story - his voice has the ability to draw you in; his words are poetic and powerful. Behind his words we can feel his emotions as they are happening to him. Again, powerful.
Dan: Yes, the audio, powered by his voice, really drives the experience. VR helps us focus on his voice by removing other distractions.
Kim: There is a strong narrative behind the shorter descriptions of John Hull’s experiences with blindness. We get a glimpse of his ability to find positive meaning in a traumatic situation. We see his meaning making happening within the smaller chapters - he describes both positive and negative experiences he had while coming to terms with being blind. But in the final chapter, he describes his blindness as a way to see the world differently, and he appreciates that world. The narrative is about his acceptance of his blindness.
Dan: And we get to see our world differently, too, both during the experience and afterwards. The story stayed with me. It reminds me of Anne Frank House VR, in the sense that you’re in a space that is meaningful to that person, hearing narration of their experience. In the case of Anne Frank, we hear an actor’s voice rather than her own. That also allows the experience to be translated into other languages. The words are her own, from her (translated) diary, so we do still get a strong sense of her thinking and personality. They are both stories mixing the mundane and profound, giving a fuller sense of their lives and how they process their circumstances. And they are both stories of limited worlds. Anne’s world is even more limited. Though she can see, she shouldn’t look out the window. Though she can hear, she should be quiet as a mouse.
Creating Empathy
Kim: This experience somewhat reminds me of That Dragon Cancer, a narrative-based videogame (non-VR) about a parent’s experience of having a child with terminal cancer. The creator (and father of the child) uses his own voice and audio clips of his young son (who is sadly now deceased), his wife, and others in the game. It is intensely powerful to play this game, not because the graphics are beautiful or because the mechanics are engaging, but because we are transported into someone’s experience through their own personal narrative and we are drawn in by their real voices and the emotions in their voice.
Dan: Yes, having a sympathetic character, especially a real person, to empathize with draws me into this world and helps me care about this way of being. It helps that John is so reflective and insightful; he models that for me, and primes me to reflect more myself. Simultaneously hearing about his experience and experiencing something related myself helps me understand and appreciate his journey more than if I only heard about it. Experiencing it immersed in a VR environment created a sense of presence, and presence connects to empathy in a couple of ways. First, people who are naturally empathetic actually feel more present⁶. Second, feeling present in another body (embodiment) helps people relate to others with those bodies, at least with color-blindness¹, schizophrenia², dementia⁷, different races⁴, and different ages³ ⁵. Participants generally showed more willingness to help and charitable giving toward groups they embodied.
Kim: I agree. I have thought about this experience quite a lot since playing. It has left a definite mark.
Dan: Notes on Blindness is a powerful empathy tool. For half an hour, I got to feel something of what blindness is like for this narrator. It felt authentic, coming from real recordings of reflections from a blind person. It felt profound - a source of deep wisdom.
Kim: Truly authentic. We went through this experience together with John.
Dan: Out of sight, out of mind seems apt. The things he couldn’t see, he ceased to care about. It may be a coping mechanism - if you don’t care as much about the things you’ve lost, it won’t haunt you as much. But, it’s also about your lived experience being what’s real for you. It’s both the power and limitation of empathy - the power to care a lot about the things we know, understand, or come in direct contact with, but also maybe the limits of caring about the things that are so removed from our daily experience as to be almost meaningless. He had loving relationships with his children, and that seems to have satisfied him. VR gives us a chance to diversify our experience. In that sense it’s not starting with empathy as much as starting with caring about ourselves and our own experiences, and then using that to understand and care about another kind of person.
Dan: The ideas of beautiful weather stuck with me. Beautiful weather for a blind person is weather you can hear - wind, rain, thunder. Scary weather is silent like snow. I’m sure there’s a range of experiences even within blind people; some may find the silence comforting, relaxing, clarifying. But, even realizing that it could be terrifying was a revelation.
Sound Design
Kim: Aside from John’s voiceover, audio is slowly introduced behind the narrative as John describes his experience with blindness. We hear people walking, wind blowing between the trees, cars, the sound of water, children playing, etc. By introducing the sounds one at a time and layering them on top of each other, this helps with our ability to differentiate different sounds and to experience them as whole (the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts).
Dan: Yes, and it also creates a rhythm of focusing on the latest sound. I suppose that might be a lot of the blind experience - having your attention drawn to a new sound. Of course that’s true for sighted people, too, both with sights and sounds. I imagine another dominant experience for blind people might be trying to focus on a particular sound amidst a noisy soundscape. I have that trouble with larger conversations in noisy rooms, but I imagine it would be a more valuable skill when so much more of your sensory input comes through one channel.
Kim: The audio in this VR experience is one of the most immersive experiences I have had. It is meditative and brings in some elements of mindfulness.
Dan: It is meditative. That’s partly because of John’s calm, almost detached narration. One could imagine a dramatic re-enactment of panic as another approach; this is not that.
Kim: This experience it a reminder of how powerful and important audio can be.
Dan: Speaking of sound design for games about blindness, there was a research project at MIT fifteen years ago called AudiOdyssey, where blind and sighted players could play together as DJs. It used Wiimotes, and you could shake out a rhythm, too. I like that design pattern of focusing on activities that are primarily audio-based and making the interfaces accessible.
Dan: It’s not a videogame, but Marco Polo, the tag game kids often play in a pool, is like that. Echolocation is also a secondary input in a lot of shooters, where identifying where an attack is coming from relies in part on sound cues.
Kim: I love it when you bring up non-digital games as examples!
Dan: Also not a game, but Dispatch is a VR movie where objects fade in and out as the 911 operator can hear them over the phone or imagine them. It’s very similar to Notes on Blindness in that sense. They use wireframes instead of points of light, and they move the camera rather than relying entirely on the player to move their head, and they keep the action more or less in front of you. So, it’s a bit less immersive and much less interactive, but it’s based on the same kernel of constructing visuals based on sounds.
Preservation of Self
Kim: It is beautiful that John’s words and experiences are preserved. John passed away in 2015, but he is very much alive in this experience and in his writings and audiotapes that he left behind. There is a lot of interest and discussion around the digital footprint we leave behind after we die. What do I want to leave behind when I die? What would my VR experience be like?
So many of us have stories to tell but we don’t realize perhaps until after the story has somewhat resolved itself or we can look back and see the beginning, middle, and end. John Hull kept audiotapes of his experiences as they were happening - an audio diary.
Dan: That’s a great point. What might the future of memoirs, biographies, and memorials, look like in VR? How might we craft them carefully about ourselves? How can they be generated automatically from our digital footprint? How will others create them for or about us? There’s room for every variation.
Ways to Play
Kim: I played this experience using the Oculus Quest 2. As suggested by the app, I used my headphones (Beats), which were great for sound cancelling. I sat in a swivel work chair in a quiet space in our downstairs office area to play. This all created a more immersive experience.
Kim: During the experience, there were several instances that reduced my feeling of immersion. First, because the Oculus 2 is not a comfortable headset, the longer I wore it, the heavier it became sitting on the bridge of my nose and cheekbones. After about ten minutes of playing, I found myself constantly readjusting the headset to shift the weight to different parts of my cheekbones so I could tolerate the uncomfortableness. Second, because I would have to hold the headset up off my face for 10-15 seconds at a time to give my cheekbones a rest, my eyes were easily drawn to the light coming in from the bottom of the headset. Third, the field of vision in the Quest 2 seems smaller than the Quest 1, and being able to see the plastic, black boundary within the headset was a constant reminder that I was looking at a screen. Finally, while not related to the headset, during the entire duration of the VR experience, my 10-pound Chihuahua-Terrier dog kept trying to put her toy in my lap and chased my feet as I swiveled around in the chair to look around me. All these instances combined definitely reduced the “totally immersive” experience I had hoped to have.
Dan: That’s unfortunate, but not surprising. Immersion does depend on being able to block out distractions. I had a somewhat better experience. I actually experienced it a long time ago on Gear VR, but it was at a conference and I didn’t have enough time to complete the experience. It was interesting at that time, but not as profound or reflective, probably due to the setting. Then I experienced it on Rift S, which has a comfortable halo strap, in a quiet room. It was comfortable and immersive, and that’s when I decided I wanted to take this closer look at it. When the Quest 2 came out, I tried it on that as well. I do have the elite strap with battery, which makes it more comfortable and balances the weight, so it wasn’t too bad. The Rift S was still probably the most comfortable. The FoV didn’t consciously bother me, maybe because the scene is mostly dark anyway or maybe because I’m used to it. I also sat in a swivel chair, which was more comfortable than standing would have been for me. The cord got in the way a bit, but it’s not a fast action game so I didn’t mind that much. Playing wirelessly is probably better, though.
Dan's Game Idea
Dan: Notes on Blindness VR helps you experience being blind, but I’d be curious to play a game about going blind. The loss, whether slow or sudden, and the period of rethinking how to live would be fascinating. There would be moment-to-moment practical questions like moving around at home or outside. Questions of when to ask for help. Questions of whether sources of meaning need to change, and whether those changes occur naturally or with great effort. It would be a game about resilience, persisting through frustration, meaning making and changing goals, navigating changing relationships, and finding the support.
Next Game
Kim: Well, we said we were going to talk about The Climb for our next discussion, but then I couldn't wait to talk about this experience. Since The Climb 2 was recently released, shall we play that one and talk about both The Climb and The Climb 2 Next Time?
Dan: It's a reach, but when this kind of opportunity comes along, we have to grab it, right?
Kim: groan...
References
- Ahn, S. J. (Grace), Le, A. M. T., & Bailenson, J. (2013). The Effect of Embodied Experiences on Self-Other Merging, Attitude, and Helping Behavior. Media Psychology, 16(1), 7–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.755877
- Formosa, N. J., Morrison, B. W., Hill, G. & Stone, D. Testing the efficacy of a virtual reality-based simulation in enhancing users’ knowledge, attitudes, and empathy relating to psychosis. Australian Journal of Psychology 70, 57–65 (2018).
- Hamilton-Giachritsis, C., Banakou, D., Garcia Quiroga, M., Giachritsis, C., & Slater, M. (2018). Reducing risk and improving maternal perspective-taking and empathy using virtual embodiment. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 2975. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21036-2
- Olson, D. M., & Harrell, Ph.D., D. F. (2020). “I Don’t See Color”: Characterizing Players’ Racial Attitudes and Experiences via an Anti-Bias Simulation Videogame. International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3409783
- Radu, I., Dede, C., Seyam, R., & Chung, M. (2021). Using 360-Video Virtual Reality to Influence Caregiver Emotions and Behaviors For Childhood Literacy. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS).
- Sas, C. & O’Hare, G. M. P. Presence Equation: An Investigation into Cognitive Factors Underlying Presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 12, 523–537 (2003).
- Wijma, E. M., Veerbeek, M. A., Prins, M., Pot, A. M., & Willemse, B. M. (2018). A virtual reality intervention to improve the understanding and empathy for people with dementia in informal caregivers: Results of a pilot study. Aging & Mental Health, 22(9), 1121–1129. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2017.1348470
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